The Madrid Charter (Carta de Madrid) is a Spanish-language pamphlet concocted by the Fundación Disenso think tank of the Spanish far-right Vox party, aimed at uniting the radical right in Spain and Latin America against “narco-communism, the left and organized crime.”1 A driving force behind the Charter, published on October 26, 2020, was Hermann Tertsch, a Vox MEP, who at the time was a leading member of the think tank.2
Madrid Charter: In Defense of Liberty and Democracy in the Iberosphere
More than 700 million people are part of the Iberosphere, a community of free and sovereign nations that share a deep-rooted cultural heritage and have great economic and geopolitical potential to address the future.The Iberosphere has all the prerogatives to be a region of freedom, prosperity and equality before the law.
Its peoples are not condemned by any kind of historical determinism. However, part of the region is held hostage by totalitarian regimes of communist inspiration, supported by drug trafficking and third countries. All of them, under the umbrella of the Cuban regime and initiatives such as the Forum of São Paulo and the Puebla Group, infiltrate the centers of power to impose their ideological agenda.
The threat is not limited exclusively to the countries under the totalitarian yoke. The ideological and criminal project that is subjugating the freedoms and rights of nations aims to introduce itself in other countries and continents in order to destabilize liberal democracies and the rule of law. Through this Madrid Charter, supported by different political and social leaders with different and even divergent visions and ideas, we wish to affirm that:
- The Advance of communism poses a serious threat to the prosperity and development of our nations, as well as to the freedoms and rights of our compatriots.
- The constitutional state, the rule of law, the separation of powers, freedom of expression and private property are essential elements that guarantee the proper functioning of our societies, and must therefore be especially protected against those who would seek to undermine them.
- The future of the Iberian countries must be based on respect for democracy, human rights, pluralism, human dignity and justice, for which the undersigned express their commitment to work together in the defense of these values and principles.
Madrid, October 26, 2020.
- 1Andrés Almeida and Franscisco Velásquez, “Quiénes son los amigos internacionales de José Antonio Kast,” Interferencia, October 24, 2021, https://interferencia.cl/articulos/quienes-son-los-amigos-internacionales-de-jose-antonio-kast.
- 2“Carta de Madrid” (Fundación Disenso, October 26, 2020), https://fundaciondisenso.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/CARTA-DE-MADRID-1.pdf.